Writers’ Group

Meets Every Thursday from 10 AM to 12 (In Person)

Atenas, Costa Rica

Open to all levels of writers who are seriously beginning or working on a project.  Each person has up to 10 minutes to read what they are working on, with 5 minutes following for other participants to share positive feedback (we generally share 1. what is working and 2. what the participant is curious to know more about).  Regular attendance is expected except when one is out of town, sick or has an important appointment.  If the number of attendants is high on a given day, not every member gets to read; when this is the case, members sign up for a reading slot.

• Catherine Alber earned her Ph.D. in Literary Studies from the University of Denver and until recently taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She specializes in apocalypse and horror fiction, trauma studies, monster theory, and rhetoric. Previous published works include the articles “Monsters at the End of the World: Mary Shelley’s Complex Apocalypticism in The Last Man”; “Monster Bodies, Monster Space: Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and the Demythologization of the Western Frontier” and “Road to (No)where?: Literal and Metaphoric Journeys in the Post-9/11 Zombie Narrative.” She has published poetry in Calyx, Fox Cry Review, the Amherst Review, and the Coe Review, and is now working on her first novel.
• J. Denise Gillen earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences at California State University, Stanislaus, which led to her dream job as a keeper at the San Diego Zoo. While there, she wrote multiple articles about her work with various species for Zoo nooz Magazine, including:
  Birds That Dazzle and Dance, You Can’t Keep A Good Bird Down,  and Just Call Me Mom.  In 2018, she moved to Costa Rica to work with orphaned sloths. She has written many Slothy Sunday articles for The Tico Times, a Costa Rican newspaper, and wrote and co-published a children’s book on sloths titled, Where The Wild Sloths Roam.
• Jesai Jayhmes a.k.a. Jeff Burnett (actor, director ,writer)  has written performance works, video scripts, poetry, songs, and short stories.
  He co-authored and edited Theater Research Group KISS, a history and training methods of International Theater Research Group KISS.
  Jesai wrote Death of an Artist a monologue which he performed in New Haven, Connecticut.  His self-help book on effective communication was published as Develop Your Vocal Power: Truly Engage Your Audience in 8 Easy Steps.  Jesai wrote Conversations with Willie, a comedic exploration of male sexuality which was performed at the Scotia Dance Theater in Vancouver. His latest solo work, Jeff Burnett on Broadway is now in development.
  He is currently Artistic Director of Teatro de la Tierra based in Costa Rica.
• JoAnne Tucker is co-author of Torah in Motion: Creating Dance Midrash and author of Creative Movement for a Song.  She began her blog, MostlyDance.com in 2018 and has written regularly about her dance studies at Juilliard, studying with pioneering modern dancers such as Martha Graham, Helen Tamiris and Charles Weidman.   In her blog she also writes of her role as the founder, artistic director, and choreographer of The Avodah Dance Ensemble, which she directed for over 30 years.  She has published in Dance Magazine and Dance Education in Practice (published by the National Dance Association Organization).  She regularly hosts writers as part of Casa Uno’s Artist in Residency Program.
• Lucy Jackson, MS, MA. Worked as Nurse Practioner in Medical Sciences. 1 publication in Heart and Lung Journal; “Cellular response to myocardial ischemia.“ And one self-published book on Herbal medicine.  She writes haiku and currently working on her memoir.
• Phil J. Davis taught in public high schools for thirty-eight years in New Mexico and Washington state, USA, and two years at a private school in Mexico City. Blysster Press published his memoir about the best job ever: Guerrilla Visions: Wild Tales of Teaching Human Rights at an Alternative High School. He recently authored the eBook: Soccer Stories of Old Seattle . . . and Around the World with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Phil is proud the juried, scholarly, journal Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura accepted his article on Mexican and Chicano literature. The highlight of his writing career was when the president of the New Mexico Education Association credited Phil’s guest newspaper column with shaming the state governor into finally supporting a pay raise for embattled and underpaid, classroom teachers. While difficult to prove conclusively, it testified to the power of the pen.